


Langst Prompts

by Not_so_emo_emo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Blue Paladin Lance (Voltron), Concussions, Crucifixion, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Kinda, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Has Self-Esteem Issues, Lance (Voltron) Has Trust Issues, Lance (Voltron) Whump, Lance (Voltron) is So Done, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Langst prompts, M/M, Original Character(s), Physical Abuse, Red Paladin Lance (Voltron), Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Space Road Trip, Trapped, abusive kuro, clone shiro - Freeform, long furbies, prompts, ships can usually be read as platonic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:06:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27209353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_so_emo_emo/pseuds/Not_so_emo_emo
Summary: A ton of Langst prompt-based fics. I need some requests but I'll probably try to update some angsty oneshots that I come up with on my own.
Relationships: Allura & Lance (Voltron), Coran & Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Kuro & Lance (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 62
Kudos: 151





	1. Help

Okay so I need some prompts and requests. I'll attempt any kind of prompt you give me (Including smutt and fluff).  
Also I have a wattpad account which i post on more frequently since I have easier accsess to on my phone. (My accounts called winterx_owonder if you want to check it out).  
Have a great day.


	2. Better me than you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Self sacrificing Lance! Gets hurt protecting the team. Preferably where he doesn’t die but it’s up to you lol, team is worried, self esteem issues maybe. Platonic (or romantic) klance?  
> -Anon

Lance had been 'enjoying' withering away in his room, alone with his self-doubt and mild sleep deprivation, when the castle's alarms blared.   
Despite his desperate scrambling with his armor, he was still the last one there, receiving a brief scolding a series of glares from his team mates, only to find it was a drill.

Lance had tried to turn back to his room, hoping to take a nice shower and get to training in a better mindset, but was quickly stopped by Keith. He wasn't glaring anymore and instead the blue paladin had sworn he'd seen a brief flash of concern in his eyes but was quick to push down any butterflies.  
'He doesn't even like you as a friend, God stop getting your hopes up. Why are you so self-centered.'

"Lance!" He flinched, looks like he hadn't been paying attention again. Great job, Lance.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" Lance had to physically suppress the wince that threatened to show when Keith huffed in annoyance.

"I asked if you knew the plan for the mission."  
Now that actually startled him. What mission. They hadn't told him about any mission. Were they... having meeting without him now?  
"Um.. would you mind going over it again." Pidge groaned nearby.

"I knew he wouldn't know. When was the last time Lance actually listened in a meeting?"  
When was the last time he was actually invited to a meeting. He certainly couldn't remember.

Instead of responding Lance just gave Pidge an unimpressed look. He'd gotten quite good at masking his emotions by now, especially with how they treated him now.

Turns out the mission wasn't going to be a particularly hard one -quite basic really- just collecting data from a nearby Galra base. Although, there had been a few problems with their plan. Just basic mistakes like their entrance point was supposed be the sentry storage unit?- basically the sentries would go there to be checked up on, repaired and stored after they'd finished their rounds. It would be risky since they wouldn't be able to know when new sentries would come back to it, but Shiro had justified it by pointing out that their entry method had been pretty much the same for a while and was probably getting predictable.

Still, Lance couldn't shake off the bad feelings he was getting. 

Lance was supposed to leave Blue to distract the ships outside for a bit with Hunk, Shiro and Pidge, while he and Keith got the information. They were to be briefly dropped of by Pidge (he had to jump quickly into Green from Blue mid-battle), leaving Red to be the only lion not actually in the battle. This was mainly because of what happened the first time they'd gone to the blades headquarters when she had attacked them recklessly. They didn't want to cause too much damage to the base while he and Keith were still inside.  
That left Blue to be the only lion able to fly at least a bit on her own, plus since they wanted to make it seem realistic to Lance's fighting style, she didn't actually need to get close to anything and just had to shoot from a distance.

This led him to now, he and Keith had already been left alone together in a Galra base with communication with the others cut off to prevent to Galra from realizing they were there as quickly. Pidge had given them the instructions on how to download the information that they were looking for, as long as they stuck to that then they should be fine. 

They had already gotten the information and cleared a good portion of the base on their way back before actually coming across any guards. It was starting to get unnerving and didn't really do anything to help with the growing unease they'd both been feeling. They'd managed to avoid the sentries utilizing Shiro's method so that part made sense. The absence of any living guards however was unusual.

Lance was about to mention something to Keith when they heard footsteps approaching. Lance sighed, by the sound of the footsteps there were a good amount of them and they weren't sentries.

Well done, Lance. I think it's safe to say you've jinxed yourself.

Keith scurried behind a crate, positioned closer to the approaching soldiers while Lance hid on top of a closer stack of crates, where he hoped to have a better vantage point. Pretty soon they were engaged in battle. From his position, Lance managed to successfully take out all their communication devices, stopping them from alerting the rest of the ship. Keith had just about jumped at them, fighting with a strange mixture of graceful and feral attacks. 

Lance was covering him as best a he could but, unfortunately, his first attack drew too much attention to his position due to the flashy nature of his bayard. Now he was fighting o the ground again. He was doing fairly well on his own but was having the cover Keith as well. His increasingly reckless attacks were actually making Lance's job a hell of a lot harder. 

The soldiers targeting him had noticed this and kept attacking him from angles that forced him to actively divide his attention between Keith and his own attackers. His attackers were getting more and more adventurous, giving him a few cuts along his arms and legs where his armor was purely fabric. A grunt from Keith drew his attention back to the red paladin. He didn't get time to figure out what had happened before he was flung into the wall and stabbed in his arm, causing him to cry out and drop his bayard. Lance growled, quickly composing himself, and shot the nearby guards before jumping up to help Keith.  
Apparently, Keith hadn't noticed what was going on with his blue paladin because he was still battling furiously against his own enemies, not noticing the sentries aiming at him from the other end of the corridor. However Lance did and didn't hesitate to jump in the way of a shot, the pure adrenaline pumping through his body, masking the pain. He leapt forward and took out the remaining sentries quickly, turning back to see Keith had finished off the rest.

Keith was panting heavily and leaning on his knees, "Hey, Lance, think I got more than you?"   
He heard Lance breathing heavily as he gave a brief hum in response. Keith frowned, not used to a quiet Lance. He definitely didn't think Lance had taken on enough to leave him heavily winded. Still panting, he looked up to see Lance leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, "Lance?"  
His eyes snapped open and he straightened up, smiling at him. "What's up, Keef?"   
Keith frowned at him and tried to shake off the sinking feeling in his stomach, "Nothing.."

Keith led the way with Lance lagging a little behind. By the time they had reached the pick up sight, Lance was struggling to keep his eyes open.   
By now, he'd definitely already lost at least a litre of blood, maybe making its way to 2. He was definitely thinking quite a bit slower than usual and his breathing had picked up a lot. He honestly wasn't really sure how he lost so much blood but his head was feeling too light to actually think about it. 

He had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't registered Keith stopping in front of him, only realizing when he bumped into him.   
"Hey, Watch it." Keith whipped around his worries burying themselves as his agitation took over, only to wash over him again at the distant look on Lance's face. "Buddy, hey- you okay? Hey, Lance. Are you listening?"  
Lance just moaned and lent into him, closing his eyes slightly, which only freaked Keith out more.   
"Keith! Everything okay in there? The Red lion just left the-"   
"Coran, I need you to get a pod ready." Keith silenced his Comms as they began desperately trying to talk over each other to find out what was going on. He pulled Lance into a more comfortable position in his arms and waited for Red to come, focusing completely on Lance- forcing down his feelings so as to not lose any control just yet.

Everything was cold and dark. It was an uncomfortable but familiar feeling something he strangely associated with safety.   
A soft whooshing sound began, accompanied by a rush of air as he realized a little too soon that he should probably catch himself. He had just accepted lying on the floor when someone decided to catch him. 

Lance snuggled into the newfound warmth and hummed softly in content. Whoever was holding him was warm and was comfortable to lean on. He'd just about realized who it was when he noticed how much they were shaking. "...Keith?"   
He was abruptly pulled out of the hug, (he hoped Keith hadn't heard the low whine he let out at the loss of contact) stilling when he say his tear streaked face. A crying Keith was probably one of the scariest Keiths to Lance.   
"Why-why would you do that?" His face took on a look of hurt before quickly shifting to one of anger, "Why didn't you tell me? You-you.. you could have-" He crumpled back into Lance and rubbed his face into his neck, his voice coming out muffled, "Answer me, jerk.." 

Lance brought his arms around him and started carding through his hair, "Keith... I know you don't agree... but I would always give my life for one of you every time. I don't and won't ever regret that. Better me than you, Mullet."


	3. Trust issues.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idk, I had this idea, it’s kind of stupid. But like, lance is really sad (you decide the .*•mental illness•.’), and has trust issues. And gets in a club or idk, something like that, with other aliens in secret, and make cool weird friends and stuff. Maybe he has a “weird” secret interest/ interests. Maybe he’s alt, likes long furbys (I love those and lance is my comfort character and I’d love to see this crossover), is a weeb, likes childish things (dolls;toys;etc), etc. The team finds out and idk. Maybe they make an organization and he runs away cause the team is abusive. Or you can make a nice team that he just doesn’t trust because he feels like they are better than him but they are actually really awesome. And you can make a love interest that has this strange interest too. That’s roughly my idea. My English sucks because I’m Brazilian.  
> -Willow

Team Voltron had just saved another planet from the empire and were about to try to convince them to join the coalition. They landed on the planet in the castle, with the lions displaying themselves around it, per Allura's request.

Lance sighed as he pulled his helmet back on, forcing what he hoped was a reassuring smile onto his face as he did so. The fight hadn't been anything new or difficult but the exasperated comments from his teammates were draining to say the least. He knew that they were probably just stressed but it didn't stop it hurting. He really wasn't in the mood to talk to a ton of people, especially since they'd probably expect him to gush about his team to them, holding them on a pedestal which most aliens just couldn't help but agree with.

He knew today was going to be draining when he woke up. Right now he'd rather just be training or swimming or doing something else to relieve the almost headache inducing numbness he was feeling.

Turns out the party that the locals held wasn't actually a bad idea. While the start had kept Lance on edge, keeping him focused on keeping his mask up, it changed for the better from he met an Chicolen called Axun. Or at least was the closest thing it translated to.   
Chicolens had the strange ability to read peoples emotions and often, their intentions as well, along with being able to release relaxing scents to help calm people down. It was actually lucky that Lance hadn't been feeling too bad that day, otherwise he might have actually cost them the alliance and his mask would have been for nothing.

Axun had picked up on him feeling down and decided to take him out on a tour of the grounds with a few of his friends. It turns out Axun and his friends were actually really good company. The spent the rest of the night talking and messing about. When the time came that he had to leave, they gave Lance a way to communicate with them and he left feeling a lot lighter and more appreciated than he had when he landed.

A few months had gone by and Lance had been consistently talking to his new friends. He'd opened up to them a lot- more than he had with most people in a while. When he first confided in them he had to leave his phone in the corner of his room and run laps around the castle, trying to wash away the anxious feeling it gave him. When he got back he'd fearfully checked the replies only to find them accepting and even opening up to him about their own problems. Axun had told him about how he was afraid to come out to his pod as poly and how he was was actually afraid of the dark and deep water. In turn, Lance had opened up about his insecurities and trust issues when it came to others and how it had stopped him from telling people about the dark places his head would bring him to even when he was surrounded by the friendliest and most welcoming people. Back when he was on Earth, he'd never even told his parent how he felt so he'd never gone to a doctor or anything so he didn't even have a name for what he was feeling which just added to his fears of telling someone about it.

Axun was ecstatic when he told him. He said he was proud of how much trust they'd managed to build between the two of them.

After a while, their messages had become a safe haven of sorts to Lance, something to look forward to everyday. They started video chatting and they'd show off new looks and ideas to each other. Lance had started to experiment more with alt fashion and started designing looks from the fabricator they had on board. He expressed his love of soft toys and plushies, particularly long furbies which lead to an interesting conversation about children's toys on their planets, which, in turn, lead to Lance explaining his homesickness.

Axun had been very interested in Earth so every time Lance was feeling down he'd ask about some vague topic to help him remember happier times. Surprisingly, it worked quite often. Although one particular conversation left Lance desperately missing some of his favorite anime shows like My Hero Academia and Haikyuu. He knew he could quite easily ask Pidge if she could find a way to give him access to them but he was afraid to ask. He knew hoe relentless she could be with her teasing and ho blunt she was. He knew she could keep it a secret but he just couldn't brush away the feeling that she'd tell someone. He didn't want to have to go through that again. The team barely took hi seriously as it was. He didn't think he could take them thinking he was childish or anymore immature than they already did. 

So he just ignored his desires and tried to move on but the constant possibilities of what could happen if they did find out never left him alone.

He'd been talking to Axun for about 5 months when they landed on a new planet. It was peaceful and they were only there for a brief catch up with the planets officials so Lance hadn't been worrying too much about impressions see as they had already met him. His day certainly took a pleasant turn when he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"Lance! Hai! long time, no see."  
The blue paladin had immediately spun around as a genuine smile covered his face and he ran towards his friend.  
"Axun? Buddy! It's been ages. How are you? What are you doing here?" Lance was quite a bit shorter than his friend but his body didn't block the eye rolls of his teammates and the grumbles they muttered as they assumed he was back to his usual flirting.

Axun raised a feathered hand the rub at the base of his head (a habit he'd picked up from all of Lance's awkward neck rubbing).  
"Well, when I heard you'd be here, I decided to drop by." Lance smiled brightly at his and brought him into a hug, realizing him quickly and bouncing around in exaggerated excitement.

They stuck together for most of the meeting until the time came that they had to say their goodbyes.

They chatted for a bit, trying to draw out their time together as much as possible, until Axun sighed a messily ruffled Lance's hair.  
"I'm gonna miss you, cermi. Oh, I got you something, I didn't want to give it to you earlier cause you didn't really want the other to know." As he talked, he drew out a long soft toy that looked suspiciously like his own attempt at a furby. Lance smiled and wrapped it around him, snuggling his face into it to smell the calming smells he'd come to associate with his friend.

Back in the castle, Lance was sneaking back to his room, desperately trying to avoid any of the castle's other occupants. His heart dropped when he saw Keith and Pidge standing outside his room, the door wide open, exposing his secrets to the people he had been hoping to hide them from for as long as he lived.  
They jerked to look at him as he realized his gift was now laying on the floor, his heart in his throat and tears streaming down his face. He tried to back away but Keith caught up to him in a matter of strides. Instinctively, he raised his arms to cover his face as he drew nearer, missing the look of hurt that flashed across his face before he pulled him into an awkward and loose hug. Pidge joined them in a matter of seconds, rubbing circles in his back, reassuringly, as he sobbed and leaned into their heat.  
He'd missed hugs a lot too.   
They stayed like that for a few minutes, while they waited for him to calm down.

Once Keith had judged that he was still enough to talk, he began speaking while moving a hand to play with his hair, "Um, you don't have to be embarrassed or anything. We're not going to treat you horribly or anything over it. In fact- er- if it's not too much trouble... could you maybe show me how to get one? Like a red lion ..... or a hippo?  
Lance pulled out of the hug to assess his face.   
He was blushing a lot and fiddling with his shirt now with his over hand, keeping his eyes averted.  
He realized he probably should have answered by now by the way that Keith was shifting uncomfortably under his gaze.

He smiled and nodded.  
"Okay." His voice came out breathy and rushed but both of his friends relaxed in the genuine smile shining proudly on his face.


	4. Pay me no mind.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro was abusive to lance while he was the clone and he hid lance just took the punishment because he believed he deserved it and made him better. Shiro always told him that it will be his fault if one of them died which makes lance extremely paranoid that he will mess up and get one of them killed. After Shiro is himself again lance still believes the clone was right and during a mission he sacrifices himself to safe Keith. He goes into a coma and in order to get him out they have to enter his brain and memories to convince lance to wake up.  
> \- Me (That's their name i swear)

Ever since Shiro had come back he'd been surrounded by the team. They were constantly doting on him and making sure he was okay so he got plenty of time to catch up with everyone, except for one person.   
Lance.

Lance seemed to avoid being around the others as much as possible, always coming up with a reason as to why he couldn't hang out. Most of the team just shrugged it off, saying they were used to it and that that was normal behavior for Lance. Granted Romelle and Krolia had never met Lance before so they didn't have any reason to think his behavior had changed but Pidge and Hunk were supposed to be his best friends, why weren't they bothered by their usually talkative Paladin going silent.  
It was simple, they really were just used to it. They had been drifting apart from a trio for months, only now it was more apparent- to Lance at least- that he was only third wheeling on a perfect duo. 

Lance had given himself a similar title a while ago. The seventh wheel. He didn't like the title but it was the only one he had that he agreed with. Lover-boy Lance and the Goofball were both acts, ones that he was moving away from and only slipped into when the team seemed to need a distraction, and he had long since decided that he shouldn't be a paladin- of Blue or Red- Shiro had-

No. Not Shiro.

The clone agreed with him which should have shown him that not everything the clone said was true but he still believed it.  
The clone was so similar to Shiro, from what Lance had gathered he was just Shiro with a darker twist and that part of him wasn't even completely gone. Allura had combined the clone and their Shiro so wasn't it a rational to be cautious of him.

Unlike the others, Keith and Shiro had been away long enough to see the change and it annoyed them to say the least. 

Lance was the social butterfly of the group. He was known for always wanting to talk to someone and never wanting to be alone. It just rubbed them the wrong way when they came back to find a quieter Lance, no longer used to attention. They were used to their bubbly Blue Paladin driving the discussion but now it was rare for him to strike up a conversation, only a little easier to get him actively involved.

To add more worry to their load, they began to notice how Lance avoided Shiro like the plague.

They'd been on their little space road trip for about a week now and Lance had already fallen into a routine. It was quickly boring him, maybe that was the Blue Paladin in him or even the Red, but he couldn't just do the same thing everyday. He needed something new and refreshing.

He woke up fairly early and did a few floor exercises then did his facial routine, one of the only habits he could still keep from the castle, and then talked to Red for a bit as he waited for Hunk to wake up and make them breakfast.

Red was and wasn't like Blue at the same time. They were both motherly and could be fiercely protective. Red wasn't as good at comforting people as Blue was but her way worked too. She could be very blunt and straight forward but never intentionally tried to hurt his feelings. It reminded him of Keith.

By the time breakfast came around on Kosmo, the others were all up- Lance suspected that Pidge hadn't actually slept to begin with- and were chatting over the Comms. Lance made sure to contribute every so often so that they wouldn't get worried.

"Don't bother telling them Lance. They don't care and don't need you getting in their way anymore than you already do."

Red purred protectively as he came out of the memory, shaking slightly. He quickly muted himself and buried his face on his hands and drew his knees up to his chest as sobs shook his body.  
Red kept on desperately purring to him, trying to get his attention.

Lance was still whimpering when the voices on the Comms caught his attention.  
"Lance. Were you paying attention? We're landing soon, I'll send out the coordinates in a minute, got it?"

Lance just hummed in response given that he didn't trust his voice right now, pretending to be caught up in eating. The others paid it no mind, going back to their conversation and allowing Lance to get himself under control.

The coordinates they received led them to a green planet. There were oddly shaped patches of what Pidge's scans showed were water. The rest of the planet was heavily forested with a mixture of yellow green and pink trees. They were just briefly stopping there for a day or so to get supplies and maybe get to know the locals.

Allura told them that the planet was called Blaxel and was inhabited by a tall blue aliens that had almost rabbit like ears and large black eyes. 

They met a few of the locals as soon as they landed, Hunk, Pidge, Romelle and Coran all left gather the supplies needed while Keith, Allura, Shiro and Lance left to discuss an alliance with the Blaxians. Krolia stayed behind to guard the lions.

Lance couldn't help but feel a bit unneeded. Allura and Shiro had been their diplomats for the longest time and it made sense for the black paladin (Keith) to come as well, so that left Lance wondering why he was there. Surely it wouldn't be good idea for him to be there. He just annoyed everyone and messed up missions with his jokes.

Did they think he'd improved. Or were they just babysitting him because they couldn't trust him enough to leave him on his own.

Lance sighed as he examined the options, he concluded it was probably the latter.  
"Lance, I know you'd rather be messing around right now but we have a job to do so try to stay focused." Allura rolled her eyes and sighed sharply at him. Keith frowned when he saw Lance flinch slightly in response to Allura's statement.  
"Sorry, 'Lura. I was just thinking about something that's all." Lance tried to sound upbeat and energetic but instead it just came out as a tired chirpiness. An odd mixture that didn't sit well with Keith's stomach.

Him and Shiro had been talking about it. Shiro didn't have any memories from his clone and the others didn't tell them about anything that could have caused Lance to act so differently, although Hunk had said that he started pulling away from the group more when Keith left. They had been trying to figure out just what exactly was wrong and how to help him with it.

At the meeting, the diplomats they met were dressed in loose black and purple robes that over laid each layer, causing their size to be difficult to ascertain. Lance struggled to push down the bad feeling in his stomach as he shook hands with the alien introducing himself to him.

Wait. How do they know to do that? Hand shaking was something they've actively had to teach all the aliens they came across. Why are these ones any different?

Lance looked anxiously at Keith and Allura, hoping it would just pass off as shyness. They both looked calm, Keith was even smiling at them a little, although it was what Lance had come to recognize as his polite nervous smile. Past them, Shiro was acting similarly. He was just about the same height as the aliens, Keith was only a little bit shorter than them which probably made him happy, and looked completely at ease. That really should have calmed him down a bit but he couldn't push down his instincts right then, not to mention the automatic distrust he had started holding towards him after everything that happened with the clone.

He knew it wasn't Shiro, he just couldn't shake away that uneasy feeling he got around him.

The aliens lead them into a smaller room with an almost Altean looking table, none of them could stop the sad ache the reminder gave them. They took their seats, with Shiro and Allura at one end of the table with, who Lance assumed, were their leaders and Lance and Keith at the other end. Lance smiled reassuringly at Keith, seeing how nervous he still was as the Black Paladin. They had a few paper and pen-like equivalents laid out in front of them. 

Lance was listening intently to Allura and the aliens discussion while Keith doodled lightly on the paper next to him. He felt a light nudge in side and turned to see Keith pushing a sheet towards him. The paper was littered with little doodles but had a clear message written on the top left hand corner.  
"How are you?"  
Lance smiled slightly as his picked up his own pen and discreetly wrote his reply,  
"Im good, wbu? ;)"  
They exchanged a few jokes before Lance turned serious.  
"Do you have a bad feeling about this?"  
Keith looked at him curiously before checking that no one was paying attention to him.  
"A bit. Why?"  
Lance didn't even check before answering.  
"I have too. I didn't want to say anything if it was just baseless accusations. I trust your instincts."  
Keith gulped nervously and tensed a little as he looked around the room.

At the other end of the table, Allura and Shiro were having an animated conversation. Keith elbowed Lance sharply and gestured to the other two. It took him a second but he quickly zeroed in on the glasses in their hands. He was about to say something when Allura started gagging.   
She promptly threw up the drink that she'd already consumed and jumped out of her chair, sending it screeching across the floor. Shiro shot up, quickly standing by her side while Lance and Keith got into a fighting stance with their bayards already out.

"Why was there poison in our drinks?" She spoke slowly and menacingly, her bayard activating in her hand to make her whip.  
The aliens didn't speak and just rose up calmly from their seats. The room dematerialized into a dirtier, empty shell of a building. The scent of death lingered in the air. Keith gagged a little next to him at the new stench invading their senses. Lance looked around startled as the aliens closed in. They were no longer the vibrant colors that they were before, now their skin was dull and peeling. Lance grimaced as they stepped closer- the stench followed them.

Blasters materialized in their hands, or, more accurately, decloaked, and aimed straight at them giving them just enough time to activate their shields.   
They quickly launched their counter attack. Shiro hanging back focusing on defense and giving a few hits here and there, Allura and Keith charged forward attacking viciously as usual while Lance focused them on covering them.

At this point him and Keith were fighting almost back to back. Lance was taking out as many as he could before they got to close, trusting Keith to cover him. From the way they reacted to injuries, Lance could assume that they were most likely some kind of robots. Each time he took them down, they just seemed to get inch closer until he was only stopping them inches away from his face forcing him to stumble backwards further and further.  
One particularly tall robot jumped towards him distracting him from the alien slinking past him to Keith. The alien probably would have managed to get to their Black Paladin if Lance hadn't stumbled into them when he dodged the robots falling body.

Touching the aliens skin burnt like a white metal rod was scorching his whole body. He was faintly aware of someone screaming as the floor ran up to meet him and darkness enveloped him.

"LANCE! LANCE!" The whiteness was giving Keith a sick feeling as he ran desperately through the nothingness searching for his friend.   
He knew Lance was here somewhere- it was his mind after all. He trusted Coran to be able to hold things up on his end and restore Lance's physical body, he just wasn't sure if he could fulfill his role.

But he had to. 

He was the only one compatible enough to actually enter Lance's mind to bring him back. 

Ever since then Keith had been here, trying to find that small thread to Lance and his memories.

Almost as if Lance was aware of Keith inner monologue, a red glittery flare sparked, fluttering to and through until it formed two people.

Keith and Lance.

Keith was in his blade of Marmora uniform while Lance was in his paladin armor. Keith remembered this.   
After he had decided to leave, Lance had helped him pack and gotten him to at least say goodbye to Red before he left. Thinking back on it, he didn't understand how he hadn't noticed the obvious hurt in his eyes when he'd tried to rush leaving.

The scene changed.  
The group were walking out of the hangar. Well, almost. Coran was carrying Hunk away, dragging blood across the floor. Lance made to follow him but was stopped by a the rest of the team. Anger was burned onto their faces.  
"What the hell, Lance."  
Lance ducked his head backing away as the team cornered him.  
"What happened?!"  
"How on earth did you mess that up. God you're so useless."  
"If Keith were here that never would have happened. Why didn't you just leave? You just mess everything up. How did two lions ever think it was a good idea to pick you."

Keith was practically foaming at the mouth by the end of it.

That's how they were treating him?! Lance looked like he was about to cry. How did they not see that?!

"Shiro! Shiro! Let me out! Shiro...?"  
Lance was alone in the training room. Keith gathered than Shiro had locked him in. Not Shiro- the clone. Just the thought made him want to punch something.  
"Starting training level 30."   
Lance just sighed against the wall and got out his bayard.

"Shiro! We can't just do that!" Lance and Shiro were stood in the observatory, the rest of the team were probably asleep, "There are people down there! If we just focus on retrieving it then they'll die! Why don't you care about that? Wha-"  
The smacking sound resounded throughout the room. Lance didn't even react at first. Just stood there in stunned silence. The clone didn't even show a shred of remorse on his face.  
"Don't even think you have the right to speak up to me. You're worthless. You don't even deserve to be on this team. Just you being here jeopardizes everything for us. Every mission you go on, every meeting you're a part of, even every training session for fucks sake, puts us at risk. EVERYTHING YOU DO BRINGS US CLOSER TO OUR DEATHS! SO DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO TELL ME YOU KNOW BETTER! YOU COULDN'T EVEN SUPPORT KEITH PROPERLY WHEN I WAS GONE! IT'S A MIRACLE EVERYONE IS EVEN STILL ALIVE!"  
Lance was shaking as tears dripped down his face.  
"If I had to pick anyone in this group to die, I would choose you. You don't deserve to live."

This time they were in Red. Lance was huddled in the pilot's chair. He was sniffling slightly, his face was littered with cuts and bruises. He was frantically trying to cover the marks with makeup but it was worryingly empty.

Just how much did he have to use it.

His jacket was discarded on the floor and his shirt sleeves were pulled up to his elbows to reveal burn marks painting his forearms and most likely below as well.  
He seemed to be talking to Red but Keith couldn't here Red's side of the conversation.  
"I know, I know. I might tell Coran? Hmm no. He'll get all protective and I don't know... No. Its not fair on Keith. He went to the Blades for a reason. I can't just force him to come back because I can't.. I can. I can handle this. It'll be fine. We still need a Black Paladin. The universe is more important than me. I can handle this. Besides I-I don't want to... They didn't care that I died, why would they care if Shiro gets a little rough with me when he's frustrated.  
It's fine..."  
Lance faded away looking more unsure and hopeless than he did before. It crushed Keith's heart to see him like that.

"Keith?"  
Keith whirled around to see Lance. He was dressed in a blue Altean robe with splashes of red and purple- Keith guessed it was a result of sharing Blue and Red's mindspaces.  
"Lance!" Keith crossed the distance between them, pulling him into a tight hug.  
"What are you-"  
Keith chuckled wetly, "We're having a bonding moment."  
Lance breathed out a laugh, "You're cradling me in your arms."  
The cuban sniffled a little and buried his head into Keith neck. "I-I know we're not dead but- why are you here?"  
Keith just hugged him tighter, "Please come back with me. Wake up. Please. We- I can't promise that everythings going to be alright but- I promise I'll always be there, even if you don't want or need me. Just, please, come home."

The brightness faded only to be replaced with cold.  
Lance shivered and turned into the nearest source of warmth.

A hand?

Lance blearily opened his eyes. He was in a crypod-bed -that wasn't what surprised him most.  
Crowded around his bed were his sleeping teammates.   
It wasn't something he was used to. Even when he got blown up back on Arus, they hadn't seemed to care when he came out. This was a nice change.   
And this time he didn't forget their bonding moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I kept getting distracted while I was writing this so I'm sorry if it's all over the place.


	5. Please hear me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance gets corned by the Galra. When he tries to signal for help, the Galra shoot at the side of his helmet, effectively damaging Lance's coms and inflicting injury. Through the pain, Lance still tries to get a signal through and hears his team, "Lanc- where are y- St-p fooli- around!" "W- need your he-p!" "He pro-ably -id some-ing stu-id agai-" Lance lays on the ground, watching as the Galra descend upon him, and listening to the breaks in static as his team fights on. Without him.
> 
> -stopkiwibea on tumblr

The ground was hard and cold. It wasn't even remotely smooth with the rubble scattered over the hallway and it certainly wasn't comfortable to lay on. It had been worn beyond recognition in the span of only an hour or so of fighting. Lance usually wouldn't have had any problem with in, as he'd learnt to navigate over all kinds of obstacles, but right now even crossing a simple wooden floor would have been difficult for him. 

When the fighting had started, the Paladins had all been separated- or at least Lance had been separated from everyone else. From what he had heard, Allura and Hunk had found each other and Shiro had managed to grab Pidge. 

They'd come to a supposedly peaceful planet with the goal of getting on good terms with the locals while Shiro and Allura played diplomats when it had turned into a bloodbath. Apparently the planet wasn't as well off as they had thought it to be. The planet's monarchy were facing a revolution and had been planning to get Voltron on their side to restore order but their subjects had found out and, instead of simply explaining things to the Paladins, they attacked them indiscriminately. It probably didn't help that the bounty reward the Galra had put on just one of their heads would easily have been enough to support half their planet for deca-phoebs.

It was in amongst this chaos that Lance had found himself creeping through the not-so-empty coridoors on his own. There were body parts almost everywhere he looked, it would have been harder to find an intact body there than winning the lottery on your first try. Lance absentmindedly wished that the walls were red so he could blend in easier with the amount of blood encasing his armour. 

It had been going slowly. These people weren't meant to fight people and Lance couldn't bring himself to kill all of them so he mainly incapacitated them and only killed if he needed to.

It just so happened that in his current predicament his only real option was to kill anything he could before they got too close.

After one of the rebels had set of a bomb, large chunks of the ceiling had fallen all over the hallway. As much as he tried to dodge, Lance had still managed to get pinned down by his legs but with just enough mobility to shoot things without feeling like he was tearing one of his legs off. 

He lowered the volume of the rest of the group to a minimum so he could trust his hearing more rather than causing himself unnecessary pain by twisting around to spot anything. He had already tried getting the others attention on the comms only to find his mic had been damaged by the rubble and he was effectively permanently muted.

He didn't think the planet's inhabitants had anyway of communicating with each other -it certainly seemed that way from how unorganised they were- but apparently he thought wrong. 

One of the aliens he'd killed had lasted a good minute or so more after Lance shot him and decided to spent the last few minutes of his life taunting him that the Galra were coming (along with a range of other insults but Lance had decided to pack them away for his nights of self-loathing). 

He didn't have any particular way to confirm or disprove that for himself and he hated it. He tried to swallow the bubbling anxiety but just couldn't shove the worry away when he was fully aware of how much of a helpless position his body was in. Blue eyes darted around anxiously, critically taking note of of every detail of his surrounding, not even blinking as they swept other the dozens of corpses strewn across and under the surface. He'd deal with that guilt and disgust later, for now he just had to survive and preferably not get captured.

He flinched hearing Pidge's voice ring out over the comms. "And that's how you hack a door! You really need to learn this, Shiro, doing this easy stuff for you lot is like babysitting four Lance's-" Lance grimaced, had she actually turned up her mic's volume just to taunt him.

A shot of pain split across his arm, snapping his attention to the side of the room hardest for him to see. If he could he would've groaned and banged his head against a wall in frustration.

There were five Galra soldiers, all fully armed and at least a foot taller than Lance. He reactivated his bayard (when had he deactivated it?) and opened successfully taking down two to the left and moving to the third when another shot rang out.

Everything seemed to be shaking and yet irritatingly still at the same time. When had the ground turned red? Was Keith here? That was his colour. Why did he hurt so much? 

He was vaguely aware of the soldiers laughing as they dragged his fragile form out of the rubble, bringing him to lay in a heap at their feet. What startled him more was the sounds coming through the comms in bursts of static. Screams and mashed shouts filled his helmet with the odd words stringing together.

The middle soldier brought his boot down on the Cuban's shoulder, just above the first wound, and kicked him around to face them on his back. They burst into crazed laughter again seeing his dazed watery eyes flutter open, "Look at him," they punctuated it with a kick to the hip, "He probably couldn't even beg us for mercy anymore." 

One of the other soldiers gave Lance a harder kick to the back, and snarled, "As if that would even be on the table anymore. He killed two of us already." Lance groaned, there's too much noise.

"Lanc- where are y- St-p fooli- around!"

"Shiro... I can't... hear you..." he mumbled, dazed. The Galra only laughed.

"Aww... Shiwo can't save you, baba."

The vengeful Galra kicked him again, this time in the thigh, "Deserves a punishment. I'm sure they won't mind if he gets there a little roughed up."

"W- need your he-p!" The third Galra only sighed and holstered his blaster while the other smirked and knelt down to drag the Paladin off the ground.

"He pro-ably -id some-ing stu-id agai-" Lance's eyes dulled as he summoned his bayard, snapping it up to bash the soldier's chin causing them to stumble back, clutching his chin and dropping his prisoner. Lance cried out on impacting the floor but quickly shot the two nearest to him and wiped around, only just managing to take down the third. 

"Ty-cal -ance. Pro-ly -idin- - wher-" 

Lance sighed, crumbling into a heap amongst the rubble. He knew his team hated him, he knew he knew he was worthless, why didn't they just let him die back when he got blown up? Lance chuckled, maybe now he'd finally get his wish. No one was coming for him, he could just slip away into nothingness. They'd get Keith back, the better Red Paladin. 

They'd be happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's kind of open ended so you can decide yourself if he lives or not.


	6. Just, y'know, hangin'.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "On a mission lance is dying and he is trying to ask for help but the other keep shushing him. After this continues one of them snaps and says god damn it lance what is so important that you are distracting us from this important mission. Lance is pretty much dead at this point so he says well it is a bit late for saving me at this point so I guess I'll just say my good byes."
> 
> -Book_Junkie (AO3)

Lance ducked the oncoming blade and sprinted past two sentries, shooting them on his way past. The Galra were still pursuing him, he'd only seemed to shake a couple. He needed to get further away, he was too close to utilize his skill set properly. He groaned frustrated- he always seemed to be the one to get separated from the others when he needed a close range fighter or just general support. 

He spotted a doorway up ahead and sped up, springing through the door and breaking the controls. He skidded and tripped into something hard and cold. His heart dropped as he backed into the door he'd just blocked, bumping his back on the metal and muttering a string of curses. 

His eyes darted around what he now recognised as some sort of storage room. He'd completely screwed himself over. The room was bare with most of its belongings packed into boxes ready to be transported. The only other person in the room was the sinister looking Galra and the only exit as far as he could see was the door he'd just broken. 

He flipped his bayard from a sniper rifle to its blaster forms and dived under his fist before crashing back against the wall and crumpling beneath a kick to the chest. He gasped and attempted to roll away from the blows but backed into the wall again when the blows began raining down from the other side. He cried out, choking when a hand gripped his hair and pulled him off the ground. 

He scrambled against the hand, desperately trying to find some point to grab onto something to lesson the pull on his scalp. His legs dangled, out of reach from the floor. The Galra placed his other hand on his neck and started shaking him roughly, laughing as he choked and gasped before abruptly slamming him into the wall. 

Lance's head dropped loosely, resting uncomfortable against his neck. His head pounded from the sudden reintroduction off oxygen as his scrambled brain struggled to concentrate. By the time his brain had caught up, he could feel his arms being held limply above his head in one hand as the Galra reached back.

Lance screamed and snapped his head up, bashing it against the wall and kicking his legs out in random directions as the Galra pushed the knife further in, firmly trapping his arms against the wall. 

Lance panted and trembled as black spots invaded his vision. He automatically fought to stay awake feeling sick at the thought of how much worse it would probably be to stay awake. He could feel the blood soaking his under suit and dripping down his arms onto his hair. It was warm on his head but his arms were too numb to feel the heat. 

At some point his head had fallen back onto his chest, leaving his neck at an uncomfortable angle. His legs had stopped struggling after the Galra had backed away a bit and now lay limply draped down the wall. He knew he shouldn't move now that his entire body weight was being held up by his arms on a knife. Moving could cause the knife to severe a major artery and cause him to bleed out. 

He could hear something scraping along the floor as the Galra re-approached. They paused and Lance opened his eyes, wearily raising them to watch the Galra. 

They looked irritated to say the least. He slammed Lance's helmet next to him on the wall and gripped his chin, drawing his face up roughly- digging their claws into his cheek and growling. "Quiet!", They smacked his face, slamming it into one of his arms, "I don't want to listen to your crazy mumbling, Paladin." He could feel the blood racing down his cheek onto his collar. "Just wait until the Druids get you. They'll have their fun."

Had he been mumbling? What was he saying? He couldn't think straight, he felt sick. 

His eyes peeled themselves open. Why was he on the floor? He ached all over and he felt something sticky on his armour and the ground. He tried pulling himself up with his arms before whimpering and collapsing back to the ground. He felt so weak. He could barely move.

His helmet was dumped beside him just above eyelevel. It was scratched and scorched all over with cracks in the visor. Lance shook himself- he needed to call for help not analyse his helmet. He pulled the helmet closer and unmuted himself and the others allowing the sound of the rest of the groups radio chatter to fill the room.

"Pidge, once you've taken out their security systems, Keith and I will go in and take care of any guards-" 

"G-Guys?"

"-While Hunk covers us from the door."

"Um- Shiro-?"

He heard an irritated huff from someone and Shiro sighing, "Lance, can you-"

"Glad you're finally joining us, Lance. I hope the wall you were flirting with enjoyed it." Lance flinched at Pidge's remark. Did they think he had been messing about? Didn't they know he took these missions seriously?

"Guys, I-" He thought he heard something getting stabbed in the background.

"LANCE! Can you just be quiet. We don't need you here anyway- just go back to the castle and flirt with Allura or something. Nothing's stopping you!" Lance bit his lip, flinching away from Keith's voice. He hated how scary he could sound when he was mad. 

"I- I just-"

"What have you even been doing?! What could you have possibly-" Lance wasn't listening anymore. He was looking at the blood. There was so much and his arms were still adding to it. He wasn't a doctor but he didn't think there was supposed to be this much blood out of the body. 

He felt sick again.

He wasn't going to get out. He wasn't ever going to go home again. He would never see his family- his original or space family- again. He wouldn't get to fly in Blue or run on the beach ever again. He wouldn't be able to enjoy swimming with Keith or cooking with Hunk. He wouldn't ever play games with Pidge or hear Coran's stories or style Allura's or help Shiro get back to sleep. He wouldn't even get to see the stars again.

He wanted to go home.

Keith was still ranting at him with Pidge and Shiro chipping in every so often.

Who was going to be their emotional punching bag when he was gone?

He was laughing. Quietly at first before it built up and ended up choking him into a coughing fit. The ranting on the other side of the comms had gone quiet.

"Heh... I'm gonna miss you guys." His voice came out quiet and shaky, he thought he heard some one's breathing speed up but he couldn't focus enough on it, "Shiro.. you're a really good leader and no one here will think less of you if you open up to them."

"Lance... are you..?"

"Keith... I don't actually hate you. I don't think anyone really does. You're basically perfect... and you're actually really cool- even if you did forget who I was."

"Lance, where are you?"

"Pidge, you're literally the smartest person I've ever met. You're like Slav but with a better personality and good comebacks. You're like my little sister. I really hope you find your family, you deserve it."

He could hear Hunk sniffling on the other end, all the others had muted themselves, "Hunk?" He hadn't realised he'd started crying but he wasn't really aware of much anymore, "You're my best friend and my brother and," his words were getting caught up between sobs now, "I'm gonna miss you so much and- Hunk, you need to stop doubting yourself. You're so valuable. Thank you.. for letting me stay with you for so long." It was getting harder and harder to keep his words in English. 

"Can you tell Coran that his stories are gran and he's like my Dad. He's great and he needs more attention. Don't let him clean on his own too often and listen to him and make sure everyone sleeps good amounts. Allura's fun si she relaja."

He couldn't hear Hunk anymore. Had he already left? He was going to miss them.


	7. Please hear me. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 requested by RedTears (AO3) and assisted by Book_Junkie.

Keith tapped on the edge of the console, watching the stars fly by as the ship navigated on autopilot to the Castle. He hadn’t been back to the castle to visit the others since he left for the blades, afraid that if he allowed himself to stay any longer he wouldn’t be able to leave. For the same reason he’d kept in barest contact with them- only ever exchanging a few messages between Shiro and Lance. With both of them he’d excused himself by saying the Blade was keeping him busy, being quick to brush away the guilt he got from how short their conversations were.

Shiro had mainly just been checking up on him while Lance had been letting him know how everyone else was doing. He wouldn’t lie and say he hadn’t been a little hurt that the others had tried harder to keep in touch or that Lance always seemed to keep his messages more formal like he was just sending him reports from a mission but he knew he was doing the same to them. None of that had stopped him missing them though. That's why he was on the way to the castle now to surprise them with a visit. 

He couldn’t help the nervous buzz in his chest. He’d thought him and Lance had gotten close, at least since the lion swap. He’d thought maybe they’d formed a decent friendship, especially since Lance had started sharing more of his insecurities with him but maybe he’d been wrong. Lance had seemed to keep at arms length in their (messaging?) and seemed to stay almost neutral in any conversations they had that didn’t involve the others, a complete contrast to his usual vibrant banter.   
Had he pushed Lance too far and made him uncomfortable or was he doing the same thing to Lance that so many others had done to him. He had left pretty abruptly but that didn’t mean Lance had to go out of his way to tell him about the others so often.

The more he thought about Lance the more the nagging feeling off something being wrong bounced around him, begging for attention.

Lance was probably fine- all of them were. Maybe Pidge had figured out a way to keep track of their calendar and it was just close to his birthday or something. 

After being abruptly pulled from his thoughts by a notification lighting up his dashboard announcing that he had arrived, he landed neatly in the hangar and climbed out to meet Coran waiting for him next to his pod with a bottle of water which he offered to him smiling hesitantly. 

Coran watched him take the bottle expectantly, he was being unusually quiet and it rubbed Keith the wrong way.   
“Coran?” He watched as the Altean flicked his eyes from the door and back to him.  
“Yes, number 4?” His smile was abnormally wide like he was trying to put up a mask but far too distracted.   
Keith just smiled back slowly and gestured to the door, “Are we… going to see the others then?”, he spoke slowly, suddenly unsure of how to act around them again. He wasn’t aware of much changing while he was gone, was this a recent thing or was Coran just as unsure as he was?

He followed the ginger down the hallways, expecting to be guided to the dining room or living area but they carried on past them without hearing any of the telltale signs of the other Paladins. Instead they carried on into the further side of the castle towards the training deck and medbay. 

He tried to convince himself that the others were just doing some late night training- maybe Allura had gone overboard with her training regime again- but Coran’s nervous fidgeting was becoming more noticeable. Not to mention the dark marks of grime, and what Keith pretended wasn’t blood, that were tracked through the corridor and leaving rough stripes on the walls only seemed to grow in fresher and more prominent on the clear white walls.

In the end, all of Keith’s wishing seemed to go in vain. They passed the training deck, hearing the muffled sounds of an argument growing louder as they neared the med bay.   
Coran seemed to be steeling himself in preparation, only causing Keith to nearly shake in anticipation. The Altean reached a stop, planting himself a few paces from the med bay door and breathing in a sigh as he allowed the door to swish open.

They were immediately met with the aggravated voices of the remaining Paladins. Keith flinched back a little while Coran’s smile only dimmed slightly as he strode calmly into the room.  
“You don’t know any of that happened! You can’t just make something up and assume it’s fact.”  
Hunk was standing protectively in front of a pod blocking it from view while Shiro and Pidge stood opposite him facing away from the door and Allura stood off to the side in between the 3 of them.

Pidge glared back at Hunk and seethed, “Well, it would make sense wouldn’t it?! It’s just like him to do something like that. If he thought he wanted help he would have asked for it.”

Shiro nodded, looking between the two of them calmly, “Hunk, I know you’re upset but you have to accept it. Pidge is probably right, it seems like a very Lance thing to-”

“But it’s not!” Hunk flared back at him, Allura opened her mouth to intervene but Keith beat her to it.  
“Um.. What’s going on? Where’s Lance?”   
The four of them whipped around, apparently only realising their presence now.   
Shiro smiled at him and he watched as Pidge and Allura’s faces softened, “Oh, hey Keith. This is a nice surprise.”

Keith just looked incredulously between them before huffing and striding over to where Hunk was standing. Hunk backed away a bit in response revealing Lance resting in the pod, still in a tattered flight suit. Keith hurled back around raising his eyebrows at the others and crossing his arms.   
“Explain. Now.”

Their faces instantly fell, filling the air with tension once again. Pidge was the first to speak up, “We were at a meeting. It went wrong and we got separated from Lance. We ended up having to deal with most of the enemies ourselves without him and we found him in some rubble a bit later.”

Keith uncrossed his arms looking experimentally across to Hunk before crossing them again. “If it's so simple then what were you arguing about?” He gave Pidge an accusatory stare.

Pidge opened her mouth to explain further when Hunk interrupted, “Pidge thinks Lance did something stupid and got himself hurt and they agree.”

Shiro shifted uncomfortably while Pidge straightened herself up to retort, “Well, it’s not like it’d be out of character for him. Remember when he got the Blue lion captured because he wanted to show off. Or ANY of the other times he messed something up because he was trying to show off for that matter. You agree with me, right Keith? You know how much Lance likes to show off.”

Hunk started trying to defend his friend when Keith huffed angrily, “Shiro, do you have any reason to think he was messing about rather than legitimately getting hurt fighting?”

Shiro chewed the inside of his mouth a bit before answering, “Not exactly. It just seem like something he’d-”

“Okay, stop. Allura, does the helmet have any sort of recording function so we could actually check what happened?”   
She startled briefly at the mention of her name before quickly adjusting and picking up the Blue Helmet from where it was left on the examination table and curtly nodding, “My father built in a similar feature to allow them to see what happened to fallen soldiers. We should be able to see in a dobash.”  
As Allura and Coran went about attaching the helmet to one of the displays, Shiro and Pidge shuffled forward to Hunk’s side, not saying anything and waiting. Keith stole a quick glance at Lance to where he was suspended in the Pod, looking an odd mixture of happy and tired.

The helmet’s recording function definitely seemed to take more than a dobash to set up- although Keith still wasn’t exactly sure how long a dobash was supposed to be- according to Coran the helmet had sustained a fair bit of damage making it a little more difficult to access. 

When Coran had finally managed to get it to work he skipped over quite a bit, saying they only needed to find out how he had gotten injured. When he’d come to a stop, the screen showed Lance trying to pull himself out of the rubble before coming to settle in a twisted position on the floor with his bayard in sniper rifle form. They could perfectly see from Lance’s perspective like this, including whatever noises the helmet picked up. They could hear little flashes of static from the team, they could assume that the damage was mainly from the rubble and that was why Lance was struggling to hear his teammates.

After a couple of minutes of watching him shoot attackers from where he was pinned down, Coran began to skip through again. He stopped when he saw Lance jerk his hand away as a shot burnt through the armour on his forearm. They watched as he reacted, quickly picking off Galra soldier one by one until Lance's head fell to the ground, groaning in pain as a second shot rang out. 

“Oh, was that a Paladin? That was so easy.” They could hear the Galra laughing over Lance, who was seemingly in too much pain to register what was going on just yet. Keith grimaced as one of them reached down, carelessly pulling Lance out from under the rubble and laughing when he cried out at the harsh pull on his legs. Coran moved to reduce the volume when the static burst through stronger than before, this time filling their ears with their own voices calling out to each other. 

Lance had been dumped at the soldiers feet while they laughed and prodded him. They watched helplessly as they kicked and taunted him. The static grew louder as Lance seemed to whine at the volume.  
"Lanc- where are y- St-p fooli- around!" Shiro winced at the clear sound of his own voice, Keith made to glare at him but stopped when he heard Lance’s voice answer, apparently forgetting that he had muted himself earlier in the recording.

"Shiro... I can't... hear you..." Keith’s heart clenched at how dazed he sounded, immediately clenching his fists when the Galra began taunting him again. He could see the guilt and regret on Pidge’s face as she squeezed Hunks hand supportively.

The view jolted again, presumably Lance was facing some more kickings. The rougher Galra’s voice spiked through again, "Deserves a punishment. I'm sure they won't mind if he gets there a little roughed up." They heard one of the other Galra sigh and walk away as the main one dragged Lance upward by the collar. 

Keith was practically growling now, beginning to walk away from the recording when he heard Pidge and Allura’s voices break through the static, only fuelling his rage. He wanted nothing more than to find those Galra and make them pay for even laying a finger on his Lance.   
He whipped around hearing the telltale sounds of Lance’s blaster. He watched as they lifelessly crumpled to the floor before Lance followed them into the rubble, letting out breathy chuckles until the recording indicated that he had lost consciousness. 

Coran turned off the console and they stood there in silence. Pidge mumbled an apology while Shiro and Allura looked equally stunned. Coran was the one to truly break the silence. He suggested that they, namely Shiro, Pidge and Allura go clean up and get some rest while the rest of them awaited Lance’s awakening. Shiro numbly agreed, pulling Allura out with him while Pidge looked pleadingly between the three of them before giving in and plodding away with Coran following close behind her, making sure they kept to their word. 

Keith paced around angrily, unconsciously looking up to watch the Cuban in the pod everytime he changed direction. Hunk had settled into a chair at the opposite end of the room, dully gazing at the pod as he dozed off.

Keith didn’t know how long he’d been pacing for. Probably hours. But when he heard the familiar click of the pod opening, he dashed forward on weary legs, catching the cold boy in his arms. He lowered them both down the floor, awkwardly piling him on top of him as the Cuban leached heat from him, whining a little at the cold.  
Keith smiled taking time to appreciate the feeling before rubbing Lance gently on the back causing him to stir. “Lance… Come on, buddy. I need you to wake up.”

Lance mumbled something into his arm and groaned, “...Didn’t catch that.. Come on, you can sleep after we talk a bit.” Keith shuddered, that was something he didn’t think he’d ever say. Talking wasn’t exactly his strong suit. 

“Fine, fine.. ‘M up.” Lance lifted his head up heavily and yawned, scrunching up his eyes before resting his head on Keith’s shoulder and drifting his eyes over to his. “Mm.. I must be in heaven ‘cause you’ve got to be an angel.”   
Lance smiled giddily as Keith rolled his eyes, averting his gaze, “Wow, I don’t think that pod fixed your head properly.” He smirked at Lance only dropping it when he saw how empty his eyes looked. He wasn’t even trying to fake a smile.

“Lance? You okay..?” Lance shot him a weak smile before turning away and mumbling something.  
The Korean placed a hand on his shoulder successfully nudging him around. Lance sniffed and fell limply into Keith's side. Keith hesitantly wrapped a loose arm around him feeling Lance tremble beside him.   
“-Don’t want to do this anymore.” Keith kept quiet, waiting for him to continue, “‘m so useless here. Can’t help anyone and - and the others don’t want me here and you can pilot my lion and-” Lance broke off, tensing for a second before straightening.   
“Sorry. Er- have fun with Red? I’ll just… get my things.” Lance rose from his arms, stumbling a little on his way to the door as Keith processed what he had said.   
Did Lance think he was… Replacing him? 

He scrambled to his feet and ran after Lance. He caught up to him fairly quickly, he always forgot how much healing pods drain you. “Lance!”   
The boy in question jerked around, painting a smile onto his face as he did so. “Hey, Keef?”  
Keith lowered his voice and held Lance in place with his hands, “Lance. Listen to me. I am not going to and cannot ever replace you.” Lance gulped and looked away, “You have more than proven how valuable you are on this team and no one should be able to tell you otherwise.”  
Lance bowed his head nodded as silent tears flowed, “I’m gonna be staying a couple of days. Wanna start it off by…”, Keith searched his head for a good distraction, “Maybe showing me your skincare routine. You can try anything you want on me.” Lance bit his lip, still visibly shaking and nodded. This time his smile seemed genuine.


	8. What are the odds, right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Slav tells everyone there is a high percentage/ chance of Lance killing himself. The team ofc is doubtful and worried. They start to pay attention to Lance and notice how much they have damaged him."
> 
> -Book_Junkie (AO3)
> 
> Sorry I think I strayed from the original prompt a bit.

Lance felt like shit. It wasn't that the mission had gone particularly bad - they had actually succeeded easily and finished in almost record time. He just couldn't help the heavy guilt that he hadn't helped enough.

He didn't manage to get any of the others to listen to his ideas (which in his opinion probably wouldn't have helped anyway) and almost every time he tried to do something one of the others always beat him to it. Every enemy ship he came across Keith beat him to, every idea he came up with Pidge had already improved and proposed, every time Keith tried to do something reckless Shiro always calmed him down better. He couldn't even be a good shield for the others since Yellow was sturdier, Red was faster, Green was a smaller target and Shiro was a better Pilot to begin with and thus didn't need his help.

He just couldn't help the idea that he wasn't enough. His Mother had always told him he was an overachiever but as soon as he got to the garrison he began doubted whether he could really achieve much to begin with. Being stuck living with a bunch of aces hadn't helped that at all. 

He vaguely heard someone on the team talking to him but it sounded like some sort of joke from the tone. He felt too drained to bother translating it and just hummed a nonchalant response before numbly drifting away towards his room.

He hated feeling numb. It was like he was floating around but with a ball and chain tied to his chest, preventing him from escaping it. He wanted to hurt himself, to mark his body as punishment, but he could bring himself to care enough to find something to cut himself with. He hadn't done anything like that since they came to space and he didn't think Blue would appreciate him using her bayard for that. Instead he just lay on his bed, drowning in his guilt and regret. 

After the mission, the comms had been filled with excited chatter, even Keith was being more vocal than usual. They'd split off to land in their respective hangars before piling together in the kitchen while Coran and Hunk began putting together a celebratory meal. Shiro was quietly sipping some nunvil to the side as he fondly watched Keith and Pidge playfully rough housing while Hunk gave an enthusiastic retelling of the mission to an enraptured Allura. 

"-And then Keith destroyed the lead ship and it exploded like fireworks. Man, it was beautiful!" Pidge nodded in agreement from under Keith's elbow, "Mmhm, we're definitely getting more efficient. Would've been quicker if Blue boy wasn't spacing out so much."

Keith glanced over to Lance to see him staring into the middle distance and laughed, "See he's not even paying attention now." 

The others chuckled to each other before launching back into the conversation while Lance slipped out of the room. 

Slav climbed onto Shiro's shoulder to lean on the top of his head, cutting across Pidge's point about the new upgrades she'd given to Green, "The Blue Paladin is quite an interesting case actually." 

Shiro sighed, clearly preparing himself for one of Slav rambling discussions. "Slav, I don't think Lance would appreciate-"

"The Blue Paladin actually has the second highest chances of death out of all the Paladins at about 76.4% and is the most likely to end his own life. The chances of that are about 83% is 56% of realities." The room had gone completely silent. All eyes were on him now. 

Noticing the new attention on him, Slav continued, "He also shares one of the highest chances of suffering from a mental illness with the Black and Red Paladins."

Pidge eyed him suspiciously before crossing her arms, "Are you being serious?" Her eyes flicked over him critically as he swished his tail across Shiro's shoulder.

"Of cour-"

"Because I don't believe you." Slav cocked his head while Hunk just nodded seriously.

"Have you ever seen Lance? He's always happy." 

Slav nodded towards the doorway causing the group to look towards it in confusion, "He didn't seem particularly happy when he was drifting around the hallways." 

Pidge pursed her lips but continued anyway, "What makes you so sure of any of this anyway? Do you even have any evidence that Lance could be suffering or are you just pulling this out of your head for... what? A laugh? Is this a joke to you?" Slav shrank back behind Shiro, "Lance isn't a joke so don't you dare try to turn him into one."

Hunk wrapped an arm around Pidge's shoulder, pulling her away from Slav. Shiro was quietly explaining Slav's 'accusations' to Allura and Coran to the side, who both wore pale and confused expressions. Hunk was firmly trying to calm Pidge down now that she wasn't focusing on Slav. Meanwhile, Keith was silently watching the doorway from where he was tensely leant against the side.

He couldn't shake the feeling that Slav was onto something and was silently debating whether or not he should go to check on him. Before long the sinking feeling won out and he slinked out of the room in search of the Blue Paladin. 

He couldn't hear anything coming from Lance's room from where he stood outside it in the hallway. It was scared Keith how quiet he could be when he was alone. It wasn't that he thought he would talk to himself or constantly be making noise, it was just such a constant source of comfort for him that it almost made him uncomfortable to think of Lance being silent. It was too similar to the time he was comatose. 

Hesitantly, he knocked on the door a couple of times before opening his mouth to speak, "Lan-"

"Keith?" He jumped, spinning around to see the Cuban watching him quizzically, "Did you... need something?" He was speaking slower than usual and wore a plastic smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

Keith dropped his hand from where it was still floating next to the door and turned to completely face Lance, painting a smile over his features as he did.

"I- er- just wanted to check on you? You left pretty early so I... wanted to make sure you weren't hurt or anything." Lance tilted his head, processing the information before readjusting his smile and striding towards his door as he talked.

"Well, as you can see, I am perfectly fine." He grimaced when he mispronounced 'fine' but dodged around Keith's confused look to step into his room.

"Erm, Lance? Are you sure you're okay, we had a pretty tough time today."

Lance smirked and rolled his eyes, "We did fine."

"What I mean is you seemed to... struggle? A bit." 

Lance tensed and softened his smirk to a awkward smile, "Sorry. Just... a bit tired? I'll do better, sorry." He made to close the door but Keith called out panickedly and shoved his foot in without thinking, stubbing his toes in the process. Cursing, he hopped around on one foot while Lance watched him in concern.

"Are... You okay..?" 

Keith groaned and hissed a breath through clenched teeth, "Amazing, why do you ask?"

Lance rolled his eyes but continued to watch him nervously. Keith closed his eyes and leant his head against the wall before sighing and straightening up. His face relaxed into a gentler, doe-eyed expression, "Lance, that came out wrong. I'm sorry. You really are a great Pilot and you're my friend so... if something's up you can tell me?" His voice went higher towards the end making it sound more like a question than a reassurance. Lance nodded quietly, keeping his eyes fixed to the ground before plastering another smile on his face.

"Thanks, Keith. I really appreciate it but I think I just need to be alone right now." 

Keith bit his lip but nodded in understanding, "Okay, just... talk tomorrow?" 

Lance nodded and waved to him awkwardly as he closed the door, leaving Keith sighing worriedly in the hallway.

Hunk set down the plates in front of each of his awaiting friends. Lance and Pidge quickly thanked him before returning to their chaotic debate over whether or not Dumbledore was actually on Harry's side or not. Hunk chuckled softly and took a place next to Pidge- opposite Lance. Lance's side of the table was fairly empty since Keith was getting some early training in and Shiro had slept in but none if them could bring themselves to wake him. 

Pidge was shovelling her food into her mouth as she talked, too engrossed in the conversation to notice whenever she completely missed her mouth. Lance, on the other hand, was stirring the food around his bowl and absentmindedly playing with it, occasionally taking small bites between sentences. 

Hunk frowned a little at the small amounts he was eating despite how much Pidge was leading the conversation. He made a mental note to keep an eye on him in the rest of their meals. 

The debriefing had been rescheduled to be held after breakfast when Keith had pointed out to the Princess that they were all too tired from the mission to properly do the debriefing. Shiro had definitely felt guilty for sleeping in so long but it was overpowered by the relieving feeling of a full nights sleep. Now that he could think more clearly the meeting seemed to go a lot smoother than usual. Keith and Lance weren't arguing, Allura and Pidge were talking at an easier pace and even Coran and Slav couldn't do anything that even remotely got on his nerves. As usual Hunk was being the literal definition of a golden child.

"Quiet, Lance."

If he wasn't so attention right then, he probably wouldn't have even acknowledged it given how normal it was and how casually Allura said it. Shiro shot a glance in Lance direction in time to see a slight flinch. His eyes dulled for a second before he painted on a confident smirk, tightly keeping his mouth shut. 

Shiro's faced scrunched up in distain and cut across Allura, "Princess, that was... uncalled for. Apologise."

Allura gave him a confused pout which Shiro returned with an exasperated sigh, "You told Lance to shut up, it's... not good for the team dynamic if you can't tolerate each other. So you should apologise."

Allura looked ready to argue but noticed Coran sending her an expecting look and she sighed, "I apologise, Lance. You were not being bothersome thus what I did was... 'uncalled for'. "

Shiro gave her an encouraging nod and she continued, "I know as Princess I expect to be held at a higher.. standard... but that is following Altean customs which you are unaccustomed to making it unfair to expect the same treatment from you. I again apologise."

Lance waved to her reassuringly, "It's no problem, Princess. It would be unfair to you to expect you to change so quickly either."

Shiro smiled as Pidge drove the conversation back to the mission. Lance was still being quiet but, to Shiro at least, he seemed more relaxed than before. 

Hunk hadn't missed how everyone seemed to have been treating Lance slightly differently that day. Pidge was dragging him along with her everywhere, getting him to help out with just about everything she could think of. She had taken so many measures to avoid Slav Hunk couldn't tell if she was more scared or angry. Coran had been pushing Allura to be nicer to all of the Paladins that day, unfortunately that only seemed to effect Lance and Keith. Even Keith was being more calm than usual, not getting as riled up by anything Lance did or said but still giving him a good amount of space. 

He knew it was because of what Slav had said the day before but none of them had talked about it outside from that. Hunk sighed and firmly knocked on his best friends door. He flinched at the harsh sound but knew he couldn't leave now. 

The door opened and Lance came out in one fluid movement, leaning on the doorframe casually, "Keith, I'm fi-"

He looked at Hunk in surprise and fidgeting as his face brightened. He welcomed him in energetically and sprung across the room to land on his bed with a light bounce. Hunk came to sit beside him cautiously, unsure of where to start. 

Lance seemed to noticed his hesitance and leant into his side calmingly, "Hunk? Did you wanna talk about something?" 

Hunk swallowed and nodded quickly, "Erm... Slav said something the other day- well actually yesterday- sorry." Lance watched him in concern. Hunk turned to look at him directly, "Erm, he said you were probably going to kill yourself."

Lance flinched, his eyes flashed through emotions before he calmed them into a calm smirk, "Slav was talking about different probabilities, right? Sure there might be a chance of me killing myself but that's probably the same with all of us. I'm sure it's nothing."

Hunk caught the sliver of uncertainty in his voice and latched onto it, "Lance, please talk to me. Honestly?"

The brunette shivered and pulled his arms around his knees, biting his lip roughly, "...I'm... fine, Hunk." He laughed dryly and buried his head into his arms.

"Oh, Lance." Hunk pulled him into a gentle embrace, resting his head between Lance's neck and shoulder. 

"I'm sorry." Lance trailed off, his voice unusually small and uncertain.

Hunk shushed him and rubbed his back, "Don't be sorry. It's going to be fine. We'll get through this. Just promise you'll take care of yourself for me and I'll take care of everything else, okay?"

Lance hummed wetly into his chest.

He was going to do his best, he had to but now he didn't feel as alone.


End file.
